Search

My search for the identity of my grandmother’s adopted sister Minnie took a step forward after Christmas 2010 when I was given a photo of a couple and it was identified by my mother as possibly being Minnie and her husband. I wrote about this photo last March in the hope that someone might recognise the mystery couple.

I also mentioned that there were several other “facts” that came to light after the discovery, the most obvious being that she got married. Although I didn’t know if this was her wedding photo it was thought that she did get married.

Furthermore it was thought that her husband’s name was either Fred or Stan (presumably short for Frederick and Stanley), unfortunately I could find no likely marriages in the GRO Indexes for a Minnie and Frederick or Stanley (or variants). It was also thought that the couple had at least one son.

Perhaps the best clue is the fact that they lived in “one of the Meon villages” in Hampshire, possibly either East or West Meon, but somewhere in the Meon Valley. Not only that but they had a connection with a local garage (possibly a Jaguar dealership) although whether it was owned by them or they simply worked there wasn’t clear.

This didn’t really progress the search that much further forward. At least I now had a geographical area to home in on and the connection with a garage raised my hopes. I felt sure that if I was able to get access to some directories for the county around the 1950s and 1960s I might be able to locate that garage and perhaps find the name of the proprietor.

Unfortunately the chance to check any directories never emerged during 2011, but fortunately I was to receive a much better clue just before Christmas 2011.